After struggling through a few blank-ish jigsaw EVs recently, I was hoping for a REST…and so it seemed to be…until I realised that Mynot had given me FOUR mini-jigsaws!…
Sets of four clues at a time, to be ‘entered where they fit’, and a ‘barred off’ letter in each quadrant, to be deduced. I initially missed the extra fact that each set of four clues was in alphabetical order of solution…but that didn’t seem to slow me down too much…
“In REST, clues are presented in sets of four. Within each set, clues are given in alphabetical order of their answers; solvers must deduce in which quarter any answer must be entered. A single letter must be entered in each of the four barred-of cells,
thus completing two quotations from the same work, each of which must be highlighted. Chambers Dictionary (2014) is recommended, but does not contain one definition which can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of English.”
So, where to start…well, in my case, the second set of clues at 6A fell out early on as ESTER, HENCE, OBESE and ROUEN…so I randomly entered them in that order to see what entailed. These allowed a few deductions to be made with crossing letters, and I achieved a reasonably steady rate of grid filling. It was a while back, and I am writing this in a post-Christmas dinner stupor, so I can’t recall too much else of the solving process, but I think I found most of the clues reasonably accessible – quite a number of exotic words, like SMEDDUM, TWEER, DRIPTIP and BIELDY, but all pretty gettable from wordplay.
To get a quotation reaching all those blank squares, it would have to be either diagonals or a square with those as its corners, and once I had found what looked like ‘REQ?IEM’ as one diagonal, this seemed a likely candidate. I was delayed somewhat by misunderstanding the preamble – at first I took ‘a single letter must be entered’ as being the same letter in each square.
Once I found ‘DONA EIS’ to go with ‘REQUIEM’, memories of the procession of head-bashing monks in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ sprang to mind… The other diagonals then yielded ‘LIBERA ME DOMINE’, with the two being quotations from the Requiem Mass:
And hence the title, REST, as the Mass is asking for the dear departed to be given eternal rest.
I have a vague memory of a similar puzzle a while back – maybe an EV or an Inquisitor? – which also had a foreign language phrase (French or Latin?) in the diagonals…not sure if that was MynoT as well, but that memory subconsciously helped in scanning the diagonals and not giving up when there were no obvious English words.
So I think all that remains is for me to thank MynoT for an enjoyable puzzle, and to wish you all a belated Merry Xmas and best wishes for the ‘rest’ of the festive season.
(One slight quibble with 1A – Chambers has PATERA as a dish (for wine), so presumably PATERAE is plural, and the definition should have referred to dishes?)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
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| 1 | DEBRIDE | Delaware wife to treat wound (7) / DE (Delaware) + BRIDE (wife) |
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| 1 | DISHELM | Deprive of capital protection and distribute wood (7) / DISH (distribute, I initially though this was as in ‘to dish out’, but Chambers has a second meaning, from printing, ‘to distribute type’) + ELM (wood, tree) |
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| 1 | PATERAE | Father’s aged wine dish (7) / PATER (father) + AE (aged) – (but PATERAE is plural, so definition should be ‘dishes’?) |
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| 1 | ROUNDUP | Take next higher whole amount for weedkiller (7) / Double defn. to ROUND UP is to take next highest number of part thereof, and ROUNDUP is a brand name for a weedkiller!) |
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| 6 | ESTER | Compound to treat steer (5) / anag (i.e. to treat) of STEER |
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| 6 | HENCE | Woman goes to church from this place (5) / HEN (woman) + CE (Church of England) |
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| 6 | OBESE | Order a quarter fat (5) / OBE (Order of the British Empire) + SE (South East, quarter, of the compass) |
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| 6 | ROUEN | Dissolute chap in front of Northern city (5) / ROUE (dissolute chap, rake) + N (northern) |
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| 8 | ACQUIRE | Get a C for elderly choir (7) / A + C + QUIRE (obsolete, i.e. elderly, for ‘choir’) |
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| 8 | IONESCO | Absurd dramatist is holding one fim (7) / I_S around (holding) ONE, plus Co (company, firm) |
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| 8 | TITMICE | Rodents pursue nag to find birds (7) / TIT (a worn out horse, or nag) + MICE (rodents) |
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| 8 | WARDRUM | Minor with spirit in threat of conflict (7) / WARD (minor, under one’s protection) + RUM (spirit) |
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| 9 | ARBUTUS | Fermented sap in barrel? On the contrary: it’s rejected by tree (7) / SU_RA (fermented sap) around TUB (barrel) – all rejected, or reversed |
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| 9 | CLOISON | Colon is creating partition (7) / anag (i.e. creating) of COLON IS |
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| 9 | NIOBITE | Weeping woman consuming vermouth in mineral (7) / NIOB_E (weeping woman, Greek mythology) around (consuming) IT (Vermouth) |
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| 9 | TOLUENE | Ingredient of explosives from reaction of eluent with oxygen (7) / anag (i.e. reaction) of ELUENT + O (oxygen) |
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| 10 | DOURO | Unhappy duo returning gold to river (5) / DOU (anag, I,e, unhappy, of DUO) + RO (‘or’, yellow or gold, heraldry) |
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| 10 | EBLIS | English pound set back is the devil for some (5) / E (English) + BL (lb, or pound, set back) + IS |
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| 10 | IN USE | Engaged in endless negatives (5, two words) / (M)INUSE(S) – neatives, without end letters, or endless |
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| 10 | TWEER | Little nose of William’s peer (5) / double definition – a TWEER can be a small nozzle, or nose, and Shakespearean for to peer, or look |
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| 11 | EYEWEAR | I avoid broadcast spectacles, for example (7) / double homophone, i.e. ‘broadcast’ – EYE (sounds like I) and WEAR (sounds like ware, or beware, avoid) |
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| 11 | LACEMAN | Manacle criminal material dealer (7) / anag (i.e. criminal) of MANACLE |
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| 11 | PYRALIS | Concerned with material for cremation is ancient insect (7) / PYRAL (concerned with ‘pyre’ – combustible material for cremation) + IS |
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| 11 | SMEDDUM | Mining engineer gave to God in whole Scottish spirit (7) / S_UM (whole, total) around ME (Mechanical Engineer) + DD (deo dedit, latin, ‘gave to god’) |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
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| 1 | DEWFALL | Wife fed up about all condensation (7) / DE_F (fed, up) about W (wife) + ALL |
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| 1 | DRIPTIP | Characteristic of long leaves, stripped in chemical solution (7) / D_IP (chemical solution) around RIPT (stripped, archaic) |
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| 1 | POTICHE | Oriental vase found in river with dubious ethic (7) / PO (Chinese? river) + TICHE (anag, i.e. dubious, of ETHIC) |
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| 1 | RHAMNUS | Take actor to ‘Rising Sun’ for source of sloes (7) / R (take, Latin, ‘recipe’) + HAM (actor) + NUS (rising sun) |
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| 2 | BUNGLER | Incompetent player hanging onto note (7) / BU_GLER (player, of music) around (hanging on to) N (note) |
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| 2 | STROBIC | Spinning orbit, unusually, in South Carolina (7) / S_C (South Carolina) around TROBI (anag, i.e. spinning, of ORBIT) |
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| 2 | TETRODE | Valve with metal bar in head (7) / TET_E (French, head) with ROD (metal bar) in |
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| 2 | UNQUOTE | End of extract from one local quarterly of note (7) / UN (dialect, one) + QU (quarterly) + O (of) + TE (note, in do-re-mi-so-fa-la-te sequence) |
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| 3 | DEIFIED | Resisted embracing one made a god (7) / DE_FIED (resisted) around (embracing) I (one) |
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| 3 | ERRATUM | Mistake to express hesitation twice about rodent (7) / ER & UM (two ways of expressing hesitation), around RAT (rodent) |
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| 3 | INSHELL | William’s to withdraw where scallops are found? (7) / double defn. INSHELL is Shakespearean for ‘withdraw’; and a scallop might be found IN (its) SHELL |
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| 3 | REISSUE | Once again offer publication concerning children (7) / RE (concerning) + ISSUE (children) |
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| 4 | ANCHOR | Coordinator of a new job — without energy (6) / A + N (new) + CHOR(E) (job, without E – energy) |
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| 4 | DECANI | South Side displayed nice ad (6) / anag (i.e. displayed) of NICE AD |
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| 4 | LAURUS | The Mexican old city beside American bay, perhaps (6) / LA (the, in Mexican/Spanish) + UR (ancient city) + US (American) |
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| 4 | UPRATE | Increase size of finished charge (6) / UP (finished) + RATE (charge) |
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| 5 | EGOLESS | Lacking in self-confidence, say, getting cry of approval on board (7) / EG (say) + OLE (cry of approval), both on SS (steam ship, so ‘on board’) |
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| 5 | ELEANOR | Ancient Greek colony and not a Queen (7) / ELEA (ancient Greek colony) + NOR (and not) |
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| 5 | MOMMSEN | German historian with no alternative upset Mormons and me (7) / anag (i.e. upset) of M(OR)MONS + ME (with no ‘OR’, so without alternative) |
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| 5 | PRETERM | Born prematurely? Abandon it not (7) / PRETERM(IT) – abandon, pass by, without IT (it, not!) |
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| 7 | BIELDY | Scots protective of Swiss city died at start of year (6) / BIEL (Swiss city) + D (died) + Y (beginning of Year) |
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| 7 | ECHIUM | City greeting posh maiden with bristly plant (6) / EC (postcode prefix of City of London) + HI (greeting) + U (posh) + M (maiden, cricket) |
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| 7 | OOLOGY | Study of eggs and tea nameless and unknown (6) / OOLO(N)G (tea, nameless, or without N) + Y (unknown, maths) |
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| 7 | SAURIA | Breezes from the east surrounding gold lizards (6) / S_RIA (airs, or breezes, reversed, from the East) around AU (Aurum, gold) |
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